USC, under Pete Carroll, entered the game ranked No. 2 in the AP poll -- No. 1 in the coaches' poll. The Trojans were riding winning streaks of 35 games at home and 24 in conference play.
While Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush & Co. were long gone from the USC offense, its defense was loaded. The Trojans were so stacked that future NFL star Clay Matthews, in his fourth year in the program, served primarily on special teams and in a backup role at linebacker behind early NFL draft picks Rey Maualuga, Brian Cushing and Keith Rivers.
David Shaw was Stanford's offensive coordinator at the time and remembers preparing for the game with no idea how the Cardinal would move the ball.
"[The USC] offense had some skill and talent, but the defense, in my mind, was still legendary and so we really had a very conservative game plan," Shaw said. "For a team that was to a certain degree overmatched talent-wise, we knew we had ability and we knew that if we kept it tight we would have a chance at the end of the game."
Going into it, however, there was no reason to give the Cardinal a shot. After four games, Stanford was 1-3, suffering lopsided losses to UCLA, Oregon and Arizona State. Its only win had come against lowly San Jose State.
Then things got worse. The morning after a 41-3 loss to the Sun Devils, starting quarterback T.C. Ostrander suffered a seizure while out to breakfast with his family. Moore and his family were there, too, and watched as he collapsed.
Ostrander would ultimately be fine, but there was no way he would play the following week when Stanford traveled to Los Angeles for the USC game. Redshirt sophomore Tavita Pritchard would have to make his first career start.
There was also a question of whether Bradford, the team's best receiver, would play. Prior to the game against Arizona State, Bradford's father died of a heart attack and he spent the week with his family in Southern California.
Bradford could have skipped the game, but he grew up near the Coliseum and attended USC games with his father. He felt that playing would be a way to honor his dad and escape from his grief.
With all that, oddsmakers installed USC as a 41-point favorite.
"As far as spreads go, that's embarrassing. To think a conference game would be a 40-plus-point spread. It's mind-blowing, the disrespect going into that game," Moore said. "We hadn't played great ball leading up to that, but 41 points? That's insane. A conference game, 41 points?"
